July 2010

07/31/2010

In just a few short days Antoine Dodson has earned a special place in the Styrofoam carton of rotten ground beef some doctors refer to as my heart. Antoine's place in my heart is right next to Ariel Wade (Whatever happen to Ariel Wade?!). Antoine has returned to share more words of wisdom with his fans.

In what I hope becomes an hourly segment, WAFF caught up with Antoine yesterday to talk about how he has become the crack that is causing YouTube's servers to work overtime. Antoine, who was wearing an outfit sweeter than a Kiwi Banana Starburst dipped in hummingbird juice, shrugged off his new fame and said his main focus is to beat the foolery out of his sister's attacker. Antoine plans to do that while calling the police at the same time. Now where we know where the real inspiration for True Blood's Lafayette came from.

BONUS! Antonie has also received the Auto-Tune treatment. Antoine and his fellow Alabamian, the Struttin' That Ass Dude, need to join forces and take their act on the road! Together they will drop tanginess on all our senses.

The Real Housewives of New Jersey’s Teresa Giudice and her husband have nearly $11 million in various debts, so she’s taking every opportunity to gain some extra cash.

Giudice has resorted to doing ads for Sizzle Tans, which has in Totowa, East Hanover, and Parsippany, NJ. The tanning salon is putting her face and body all over billboards around NJ. To top it all of, check out this ridiculous commercial featuring the desperate housewife after the jump.

Teresa Giudice for Sizzle Tans

“She’s the face of our company,” owner Rob Hornung told PEOPLE.

Giudice and her husband, who had filed for bankruptcy last October, are planning to sell their personal belongings in a public auction August 22. In papers filed in Newark Federal Court, the Guidices claim to only make $79,000 a year between the two of them, and are unable to handle the foreclosures and hefty credit card bills.

I’ve heard of desperate measures, but this is hilarious. I can see another table flip coming any day now.

Today, President Sarkozy warned that France would strip “foreign born criminals” of their French nationality if they use violence against the police or public officials. Earlier this week, Sarkozy had said that he would expel foreign Roma minorities who commit crimes in France back to Eastern Europe in his vow to tighten nationality rules for other non-French-born...more at newsjunkiepost.com

Larry Adams has become an overnight internet celebrity of the worst kind: at a National Organization for Marriage (NOM) rally in Indianapolis, a camera caught Adams holding a sign with two nooses on it and the words “solution to gay marriage.” Beneath this violent slogan Adams had posted a lengthy Leviticus quote about putting men who lie with men to death

An anti-gay-marriage group is stopping in Tampa during a national summer tour, and protests are in the works. Have you ever protested an anti-gay group or event? Yes, every chance I get. Yes, but the cause has to be really, really close to my heart. No, it's a waste of time. No, it only draws attention to the anti-gay cause. No, I only march for pro-gay causes and pride events, never in protest of anything. All polls

It's expected to get hot as NOM's Summer for Marriage Tour 2010 rolls into Iowa next week, but the anti-gay marriage group warmed up first with three stops in Minnesota.
The National Organization for Marriage (NOM), the nation's most vociferous opponent of gay marriage, has mounted a 23-city bus tour to promote marriage as between “one man, one woman.” The tour is expected to end with a Washington D.C. rally on August 15.
At stops in St. Paul on Wednesday, St. Cloud on Thursday and Rochester on Friday, NOM speakers stepped up their claims that preserving marriage as a heterosexual union is a civil right.
“We've taken great pains to make clear what we are all about,” NOM President Brian Brown said in St. Paul. “We view ourselves as a new civil rights movement. … Committed to something that in the 1960s was key: the right to vote.”
“If we do not stand up for marriage we will be treated under the law as bigots,” Brown told a sparse crowd that had gathered in the parking lot of the New Life Worship Center on Friday.
While stops in St. Cloud and Rochester drew little interest, Wednesday's St. Paul stop was easily the tour's biggest success to date. One head count put NOM supporters at 163. About 200 counter demonstrators led by the gay rights group OutFront Minnesota kept their distance, opting to rally inside the Statehouse rotunda.
NOM announced in May it would battle against gay marriage in the state with a $200,000 campaign.
“Many Minnesotans are unaware that special interest groups are working to convince activist judges and DFL [Democratic-Farmer-Labor] lawmakers to redefine marriage in the state,” Brown said in a statement.
In its first television ad, the group took aim at four leading candidates for governor who support gay marriage.
“Leading DFL and independent candidates for governor support homosexual marriage,” a male announcer says in the ad. “And most DFL lawmakers don't want you to have a say. When they ask for your support, ask them if they'll guarantee your right to vote on marriage.”
NOM officials have made plenty of noise about the civility of counter protesters, but after saying in St. Paul that his group “will stand up and repudiate hatred on both sides,” Brown reversed course two days later and backed the church's right to denounce gay men and lesbians.
When asked by Arisha Michelle Hatch, who is documenting the tour on behalf of gay rights groups the Courage Campaign and Freedom to Marry, if he agrees with religious speakers on the tour that have described gay people as “perverted,” diseased” and likely pedophiles, Brown backed their right to freely speak.
“What I believe is that pastors and religious leaders need to be able to speak up for traditional, Christian sexual morality,” Brown answered. “And they have the right to do that. They have the obligation to do that.”
In two Iowa stops starting on Sunday, the tour is expected to draw large crowds of supporters and counter demonstrators.
Iowa became the first – and remains the only – Midwestern state to legalize gay marriage when the Iowa Supreme Court unanimously ruled in favor of advocates last year. The issue has driven many of the state's top races, with many Republicans openly campaigning in favor of a constitutional amendment to define marriage as a heterosexual union.
Several attempts to begin the amendment process have been blocked by Democratic leaders in the Legislature, angering social conservatives opposed to the institution.
Danny Carroll, a former Republican legislator and chairman of the Iowa Family Policy Center, the state's leading opponent of gay marriage, is expected to draw large crowds at NOM rallies in Des Moines on Sunday and Sioux City on Tuesday.
Carroll has previously called the court's ruling “contrary to God's law.”
Last week, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation's largest gay rights advocate, said it believes the tour is designed to incite loud protests, not promote heterosexual marriage.
HRC claimed that the tour is being used to gather evidence of ill-behaved protesters in an effort to boost several ongoing lawsuits that claim opponents of gay marriage face threats of violence and intimidation, and their identities need to be shielded.
The theory is almost certain to be tested in Iowa, where the state's largest gay rights group, OneIowa, is rallying counter protesters with the battle cry “WE REFUSE TO BE SILENT!”

A male couple together for 27 years were the first to marry in Argentina under a new law legalizing gay marriage.
Architect Juan Carlos Navarro, 54, married his partner Miguel Angel Calefato, 65, in a ceremony that took place Friday at 7:30AM in provincial Santiago del Estero.
“Respect has prevailed over prejudice,” Navarro told daily El Liberal.
He said the men shared an instant connection when they met nearly three decades ago while vacationing on a beach resort.
The Navarro-Calefato wedding was poised to make history after it leapfrogged ahead of another couple set to marry in Mendoza on Saturday.
Navarro said the couple was not driven by being first, but only wanted to be legally married.
Argentina became the first Latin American country to legalize gay marriage after President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner signed the law on July 21. Lawmakers approved the law over the strong objections of the Roman Catholic church; one cardinal called the movement to legalize such unions the devil's handiwork. Some judges have protested marrying gay couples.
Lawmakers also considered a civil unions bill, but opted instead to give wedded gay and lesbian couples all the same legal rights as their heterosexual counterparts, including the right to jointly adopt children.
A gay marriage bill recently approved by lawmakers in Portugal does not include the right to adopt.
Since the law's enactment, Chile and Peru have announced plans to debate recognition of gay unions, and Uruguay and Paraguay will consider gay marriage legislation. Gay marriage is also legal in Mexico City, but federal officials are challenging the law in court.
About two hours after the Navarro-Calefato wedding a second gay couple married in Buenos Aires.
Alejandro Vanelli and Ernesto Larresse tied the knot Friday after 34 years of partnership. The couple had previously attempted to marry twice but had been denied.
Vanelli, 61, is an agent who represents over 200 actors, while Larresse, 60, is an actor.
“I have only words of gratitude,” an emotional Vanelli said.
The marriage was witnessed by actors Mercedes Moran, Boy Olmi and Gerardo Romano.
Olmi said he was proud to be part of the historic wedding.
The weddings were the first of many expected in coming weeks. At least three additional gay couples are expected to marry in Argentina on Saturday.

JERUSALEM — Thousands of Israelis marched calmly Thursday in Jerusalem's longest gay pride parade despite opposition from anti-gay demonstrators.
The subdued Jerusalem march from the center of town to the parliament building contrasted with flamboyant gay pride parades elsewhere in the world. Organizers said they were adjusting to the religious character of the city and using their march to promote their political agenda.
Carrying rainbow banners, several thousand demonstrators walked along the 1.5 mile (2.5 kilometer) route. A few dozen black-suited ultra-Orthodox Jewish protesters at the beginning and end of the route held signs denouncing homosexuals, with slogans like "Gay Play in Hell, Not Jerusalem." Many ultra-Orthodox Jews consider homosexuality an abomination.
Marchers said such opposition has forced the gay community of Jerusalem underground in most parts of the city.
"In a religious society, a lot of people still don't realize we actually exist," said Sarah Weil, 26, who helps run an organization for lesbians who are also Orthodox Jews.
The march marked the one-year anniversary of a shooting attack at a Tel Aviv gay youth center that killed two.
"This is first of all a march of mourning," said organizer Yonatan Gher, "and at the end we will try to put the mourning behind us and look forward to the coming year, and declare tonight the beginning of gay rights year."
Thousands of Israeli police guarded the marchers.

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